As a long time full & part time dealer, I've appraised quite a few US & world collections, either for purchase, on a hourly rate or as a favor for people. Sometimes, though, it can be difficult to deliver the bad news to an owner. I'm doing one right now for one of my wife's friends at church. She is over 80 and the US coins (more of an accumulation than anything) belonged to her husband who passed away in 1994. She brought 4 large boxes over to the house and the better stuff is in a safe deposit box. According to her, her husband told her the group was worth about 15K. Am almost through with box 1 and it's not looking good. Lots of stuff in Whitman album collections, 1970's and 1980's mint sets, proof sets, etc. Condition is almost always average circulated with no keys spotted as yet. This bunch is supposed to be worth several thousand $ but looking forward I don't expect a result even close to this. So far, all that's bailed her out is the silver coins with good melt value. Luckily, she plans on leaving most of this to her daughter and not depend on the proceeds. It's really hard to have to burst someone's bubble and tell her the truth about the actual value. She has a list of the safe deposit box contents but after looking it over I'll be the bottom line will be no more than $5,000 at best. I've had to do this before but that doesn't make the task any easier!
Telling the truth and disappointing someone is better than giving someone false hope. Just tell them the true value, and that you are sorry that it isn't worth what they thought.
There is always that fine line one must often walk between appraising and then making an offer. I have been in the same position a few times and always found it best, after appraising, to tell the people to get a second opinion before and/or after making an offer. But best to give them the news correctly as you are. Too many folks come into this situation with high hopes, just to get them dashed.
I am helping a freind with a sizable collection his father left. First thing he excitedly handed me was a handful of sleeved very very bright and shiny but very very worn Indian cents. Yes, it was difficult telling him that while those cents were quite pretty to look at, they were in effect ruined. Seems his father rather enjoyed polishing old cents. Quite a few of them in fact.
I went through a small collection a week ago for a friend. There was no plan to buy, just give a honest appraisal. She had someone else do this some time ago. Turned out to be nothing of significant value and the silver was almost all only worth melt. I think she was shocked but I broke it all down and explained where the value was. For example, She had 15 IHC, 7 had holes and the other 8 were common dates in vg condition. Kind of a summery of the collections condition. Better to be honest.
hey brother I very much understand you..I once appraised a older woman's collection and she thought the exhusband collection was worth 60- 80 thousand it. Seemed that the husband brought a lot from the coin vault and coin shopping network ... And when I had to go through everything I went through and told her that the collection was too over priced , and they where really common coins.. It happens all the time that's why in my ledger I list the purchased price and the book value and such,,,
Just be honest with her about the entire collection, not just the one box you've been through. You may have picked the worst box first. Wait until you've seen the entire collection but be honest in the end. It may hurt but better a little pain now then a lot in the future.
It's an emotional collapse for the people asking. I recall threads here where someone comes online looking for approx valuation but then mention a lot of stuff was bought from the same places you mentioned and other websites. Profit margin are huge for those places, but leaves the collector in the end with something worth far less than what they anticipated. Just listening to some of them today on the TV makes me cringe on how they "value" the current value. Makes you wonder if the coins they are selling are worth so much, why are they selling them for so "little" when there's a large profit to attain?
We can laugh at them, but the TV coin dealers have done more damage to this hobby than we think. A lot of that damage won’t be revealed for years until heirs try to sell their loved one’s collections.
I see the same thing with old cars (another area I like to play in)..... Folks think these old jalopies can bring large figures simply because they are old. Another testament to the power of on line and television programs.
Been there. Recently bought a gentleman's collection that I am friends with. He had some nice coins, all raw, lots of silver, etc. In total he was delighted to get about $5k. So he sent one of his friends to me, an elderly lady whose husband had passed. Her husbands coins were almost all modern. I broke the news. It was about $400 worth. She was devastated and in her distraught state told me she was "hoping for a million dollar collection." Guess she was in a tough financial position. She took the coins back. I told her there was no charge, that I enjoyed looking at her husbands collection.
Yeah it’s tough. I do the same with antiques too. Sorry your ca 1930 dining room set is worth about $200 which is about $150 more than it was worth 15 years ago due to the fad of painting that sort of stuff white and distressing it. Yet the ratty looking old cupboard in the barn with the tractor parts in it. Now that I pay money for it because nobody ever refinished it or painted over the original red milk paint those are the things I like to find. As to coins once in awhile I get a surprise too. A ct member asked me to look at a collection they inherited when I was in Illinois recently. The 2 1/2 they posted wasnt high ms like it looked in pics. But is a 58/62 slider. And they had some nice better date Morgan’s including an 89-cc fine original gray. And original proof sets from the 50s and even a 41 and 42. Those are the collections I like to see even though there was none of the early stuff I like personally
